WHO ARE WE

The Nashville Chapter of National Organization of Minority Architects

NOMAnash encompasses metropolitan Nashville, TN.

We are Architects, Designers, and Citizens with a goal to serve humanity through advocacy and outreach.

 

NOMAnash is a non-profit professional service organization whose goals include working together to fight discrimination towards minorities in the architectural industry, fostering justice and equity in communities through outreach, facilitating professional development of its members, and effectively motivating and inspiring minority youth and maintaining active roles in their education. One of our missions is to introduce and promote architecture to school age children (grades K-12) by producing and distributing a bi-annual  “NOMAnash Coloring Book of Architecture” and by sponsoring mentoring programs such as Project Pipeline. Our mission is not only to be an advocate for our industry promoting design excellence, but more importantly to reach out and interact with the marginalized communities here locally.  As we engage, celebrate, and educate them in architecture & design, we also believe this will help break down some barriers that prove to be the cause of under-representation by minorities in the architectural field.

PURPOSE

In concordance with the purpose of NOMA National, the purpose of NOMAnash is to:

  • foster communication and fellowship among minority architects through educational, social, and charitable programs and projects

  • encourage collaboration of existing and proposed local minority architectural group

  • fight discrimination and other selection policies being used by public and private sector clients to unfairly restrict minority architects' participation in design and construction

  • act as a clearinghouse for information and to maintain a roster on practitioners

  • encourage the establishment of coalitions of member firms and individuals to form professional relationships

  • be an effective source of motivation and inspiration for minority youth and maintain an active role in the education of new architects

  • promote the design and development of living, working, and recreational environments of the highest quality for all people

  • create, encourage, and maintain relationships with other professionals and technicians whose work affects the physical and social environment, and

  • work with local, state, and national governments on issues affecting the physical development of neighborhoods and communities

“Whatever career you may choose for yourself - doctor, lawyer, teacher - let me propose an avocation to be pursued along with it. Become a dedicated fighter for civil rights. Make it a central part of your life. It will make you a better doctor, a better lawyer, a better teacher. It will enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It will give you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring from love and selflessly helping your fellow man. Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human rights.
You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country and a finer world to live in.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King